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Detecting gift card fraud can be tough. Fortunately, there are a number of telltale signs that make catching criminals in the act a little easier. Note that some of these steps may result in higher costs for you the merchant. That means you’ll need to decide whether fighting gift card fraud is worth the effort. But in most cases, the pros far outweigh the cons.

An online payment portal works very similar to a traditional e-commerce shopping cart — payees complete their monthly payment from the comfort of their PC browser or mobile phone via the customer payment portal. The primary advantages behind this approach are less cost and more convenience.

In short, interchange rates and fees are fees the issuing banks (a.k.a. the cardholder’s bank i.e. Chase, BOA, Barclay, etc.) charge merchants for the convenience of seemingly instant deposits. This "convenience fee" is designed to pay for the billing services, risk, and float costs the issuing banks incur while transferring money from the cardholders to the merchants. In other words, it’s the underlying cost you as the merchant have to pay for the “convenience” of accepting credit cards.

A surcharge is any fee added to a transaction to compensate for credit card processing fees. This definition doesn’t apply to all types of transactions — only credit card payments. This is different from a convenience fee that merchants use to charge for the medium of sale vs. the type of sale.

In 2018, a one size fits all approach does not work when it comes to making payments for goods and services. Of course, there are old-school methods like cash or checks as well as standard credit and debit cards, but today’s mobile friendly society is ushering in an entirely new era of payment solutions. With payment technology moving at a breakneck pace, it’s important to stop once in a while to review the newest trends and to understand how they work. Mobile payments and digital wallets are...

As a business owner, you likely know the importance of reviewing your credit card processing statement each month. However, taking the time to review your statements will not do you much good without the proper understanding of what you are looking at. When you review your credit card statements without effective practices in place, you run the risk of paying more than you should. If you understand how credit card processing statements are formatted and the different fees involved, you will...

Declined credit cards are a common occurrence in any business environment, but it is especially common in retail or high-transaction volume businesses. Regardless of the point-of-sale system you are using, it should deliver a specific code number whenever a transaction is declined. But that won’t help give you the “why” without having the definitions to those codes. Having these decline code definitions on hand helps you provide better customer service by providing your customers with a more...

Losing your debit or credit card normally isn’t that big of a deal. If one of your cards is lost, stolen or compromised, the card issuing bank will send you a replacement card within a few days. Most card issuers also provide fraud protection so you will not be personally liable for any unauthorized purchases that may occur before your lost or stolen card is closed.